Official fined $1K over tree removal

Fairfax officials have issued a $1,000 fine to Councilwoman Stephanie Hellman and her husband TedHellman after the town got an anonymous tip about a redwood tree that was cut down on their property without a permit.

The Hellmans are now seeking a retroactive permit from the town Tree Committee that would authorize the removal of the redwood. A public hearing is scheduled for 7 p.m. Oct. 26.

If the permit is approved, the $1,000 fine will be forgiven, said Town Manager Garrett Toy. But Stephanie Hellman said that’s not the primary reason she and her husband will be petitioning the Tree Committee.

“We just want to go on record so it’s knownwhat happened,” she said. “We don’t want there to be any question that we would just willy-nilly cut a redwood tree down.”

Ted Hellman said he asked a contractor to cut down the tree while the family was out of town, and he didn’t initially tell his wife about it. It was part of a larger project that included replacing the fence that surrounds the family’s home on Redwood Road. The fence was damaged earlier this

year when a driver for Amazon backed a delivery van into it.

“Stephanie had no knowledge of this in advance of it, until the town called and said, ‘Hey, we got this complaint,'” Ted Hellman said in a phone interview. “She wasn't involved in the planning of the work or the authorization.”

In a letter to the Tree Committee, Ted Hellman said the tree, which hemeasured at 8 inches in diameter, was among the smallest of the 30 redwoods on the Hellmans' property and was less than 3 feet away from the street. He said the contractor working on the fence suggestewd removing the tree because it would eventually interfere with the fence, and he agreed.

“I could see that it was going to continue to grow into the roadway, and would eventually need to be removed,” Ted Hellman wrote. “I believed it would be better to remove it before it became as large as the trees just up the street.”

But, he said, “We neglected to request a permit for the removal of the tree and are deeply sorry for that oversight.”

“We both feel awful about it,” Stephanie Hellman said.

According to Toy, removing any tree or tree limb larger than 4 inches in diameter requires approval from the Tree Committee. He said the contractor the Hellmans hired isn't liable for violating that rule because “the contractor is working for the property owner, so the property owner is responsible.”

Toy said the town commonly gets complaints from people who see others cutting down trees.